Keeping the Bumpus Hounds at Bay

The ubiquitous dog-related holiday disaster story appears in "A Christmas Story". Still, every year, I am contacted by distraught owners who just didn't realize how predictable and, sadly, preventable, holiday hoopla could have been.

To ensure you & your dog have a smooth holiday
Assess your situation:
Is this the dog's first holiday experience at your house?
Is the dog an adolescent (age 4 mos -3 years)?
Have you had the opportunity to properly socialize the dog?

Assess reality:
Are you able to make this a positive learning experience for the dog?
Have you been providing the correct levels of exercise, training, and stimulation over the past few weeks?

WHY are the holidays so tricky? So much can be non-routine. Here are some occurrences that your dog may not ever encounter apart from the holidays:

• tired owners (alcohol or fatigue have similar effects on ability drive a car)
• stressed owners have litte patience or calmness in working with the dog
• rushed owners have no time for the dog
• irregular schedules
• prolonged confinement
  
• kenneling, pet sitters, or daycare sessions
• skipped or reduced-length walks and training sessions
• extended, overnight visits from family and friend
• visits can include other pets
  
• crowded rooms in your home
• unsupervised children
• food left out or accessible (You don't really think the trash can is inaccessible, do you?)
• atypical, highly-stimulating objects (toys that make noise or even move, blinking lights, candles, etc)

When making decisions about how to handle the holidays, forethought is your best defense. Once something has already occurred, it isn't as if you can rewind time and "unteach" what happened! However, being overly cautious may result in your dog never learning to handle holiday-related stimulation.

BEFORE THE BIG DAY
INCREASE, rather than decrease walks, training, and exercise. Bad weather means "bundle up", not "skip your walk". Get help if you can't realistically make it happen. Hire a trainer, a dog walker, a pet sitter, .... Even a trustworthy neighbor or family member will do!

Replace extended confinement whenever possible. Consider letting your dog spend the day with a trustworthy friend or family member, or use a reputable doggie daycare. Confinement to a crate, room, pen, or backyard, while safest, increases exercise demands to maintain desirable behavior.

Enroll in a training course. Not only will you learn great tips and tricks, but you also get a terrific opportunity to see what your dog can handle. A group class environment is a great indicator of how your dog may handle other highly stimulating environments (like your holiday get-together).

Test run confinement before the big day.

ON THE BIG DAY
Don't skip exercise; add extra. If you aren't providing extra exercise to accommodate increasing stress levels, you are adding risk factors. Skipping exercise is a risk factor above and beyond that.

Supervise, supervise, supervise! Multi-tasking is a myth. At moments when you can't provide the appropriate level of supervision for your dog's level of expertise, confine the dog to a mistake-proof area.

Deliberately teach through as much as you can handle. Calm is key. Feel harried, anxious, or rushed? Don't handle your dog. Opt for confinement until you feel calmer. Ask your favorite resource how to teach through real-world scenarios like greeting guests at the door, greeting seated guests, going to a designated spot and lying down on command, etc., while in a highly stimulating environment.

Avoid the problem. While a terrible long-term solution, it may be most realistic for your situation this year. Find a reputable boarding kennel, daycare, or even a dog walker, pet sitter, dog trainer, groomer, vet assistant, or other dog pro who can be trusted take the dog to their home. Realize that everyone else and their cousins will do this, too. Plan ahead.


There is no way to absolutely guarantee nothing will go wrong. Make the best choices you can, and don't worry about any minor mishaps. At the end of the day, if no one bled, no one died, and your home is mostly intact, call it "success", ... and memory material. Even the legendary Bumpus Hounds just made for a great story.

Today I Became Dairy-Free

Walking Lila on our usual route, I encountered something unusual. As our typical route takes us beside a dairy farm, the presence of cows is typical. The location of this cow, however, was not. She was outside the pasture fence.

"Oh, no," I thought, "She must have gotten out somewhere." I started to approach her, thinking I would find a way to use mildly-cow-phobic Lila to help herd her back into her pasture.

She didn't move right away on my approach. I wondered, "Is she tied out? Is she having a calf? Maybe she is having some vet procedure today, and needs to be easy to get to." She was lying down, and these all seemed reasonable possibilities.

As I got closer, she heaved her enormous body in an attempt to stand. It was then that I realized that she could not get up. "Has she hurt a leg?" I thought. I mentally cringed in anticipation of some kind of bloody, mangled mess. Still, it made sense to isolate a cow with a hurt leg, rather than allow her to be jostled and further injured by her fellow bovines.

I was still operating under the assumption that I wanted to believe: that she was tied out.

Reaching her, I found that my assumption was wrong. I didn't want to believe what I was seeing. Back legs tied together with twine. One side caked with mud, from face to rump. Bloody scrapes on the muddy side. And, most awful of all, tire tracks around her.

"Maybe she fell while they were delivering her? Maybe there is a single hand here today, who can't lift her, but didn't want her to run off while he tended to all the other chores, and he'll come out to take care of her in a bit." I really didn't want to believe what I was seeing.

What I was seeing looked like maybe they brought her to the back field, tied her back feet, and hit her with the truck.

But this farm always had the nicest looking cows! They were always clean, well-kept, and apart from the general structural breakdown the Holstein breed is experiencing, were fine-looking animals. The farm is generally exceptional tidy. These two qualities always made this farm seem a lovely contrast to the generally run-down, dirty, ill-kempt animals and farm properties I have, over the past 30 years, come to associate with Amish farming practices.

Yes, cows are, by nature, skittish animals, I grant you. However, it's me. Cows are curious animals, and if you communicate the idea that you are not a threat, generally, they are far more social than most city slickers probably realize. I have been licked by many cows. This cow, was traumatized. Her breathing was rapid. Before I even laid a hand on her, she tried to move away from me.

I touched her gently, slowly increasing pressure as I massaged the soreness I imagined that laying still for so long had probably caused, she began to relax. I used my nails to "nibble" her neck, like cow friends do to one another, and she relaxed even more. I leaned into her body, and she leaned back into mine. "Ah," I thought, "we're ok." And in my pride, I patted her neck with my open palm.

I may as well have shocked her. She leapt from the sensation, but bound by the twine, could go nowhere. I continued to work her, and then just crouched beside her. I knew she was doing ok when I saw the cows back at the barn stop staring at us and go back about their regular cow business, whatever that is.

Still, I just didn't want to think what I was thinking.

I called the police and reported a loose cow. I thought, "Well, if I am mistaken, they'll see what is going on here." Two hours later, sunset, 40 degree temps, the cow is still there, I note that she is mildly dehydrated, and the farm is still deserted.

I announced to my mother, "Of all the things I thought I'd get arrested for, this never made the list." I have, I admit, rather frequent misanthropic fantasies, and our joke is that I'll get arrested for following through one day. (I've never been arrested. I was a straight-A student.) I actually considered stealing a cow. I saw her standing in my parents' garage. (My parents who can't have a dog in the house because it's "dirty"?)

I called the Humane Officer, and mentioned the possibility that this was a cow who needed to be euthanized. She introduced the conclusion my mind did not want to accept. "Sounds like maybe they dragged her." she said. Instantly, I realized that I should have (as is almost always the case) trusted my instinct.

Today, I am done with dairy. As an enormous fan of dairy, and dairy products, this is a sacrifice. I'm not an extremist. In theory, there is nothing so inherently evil in keeping cows or drinking their milk. In fact, one of my dreams is to have a Jersey cow and/or goat of my own, whose milk I'd drink! I don't think they mind terribly, provided they are well-looked after, basically large pets, I guess, and that they aren't separated from their offspring, drugged, milked by machines, or otherwise mistreated.

However, the practical reality of what my money supports when I purchase milk and milk-derived products from the grocery store? What I saw today was obviously not a first. This was not the first dragged cow. And this is probably not the worst of what happens.

I think we probably all assume that the worst happens on large-scale farms, because many of us have a mental image of large soul-less corporations being uncaring. However, when it comes to animal husbandry, I can't imagine the large, adequately staffed, state-of-the-art operations engaging in what I saw today. I suspect someone wanted to avoid the cost associated with proper euthanasia.

And, I bet that it is mid-size operations that are most guilty of the worst offenses. Small-scale operations give their cows names. (Sometimes they even write it on the cow's ID tags.) Large scale operations find it more economical in the grand scheme of things to do things properly.

But unless I know the name of the cow from which the milk came? Well, Nicole is done with dairy. I cannot cause what I saw today.

What stopped me (before today) from this decision is a common human cognitive foible. Humans have, by nature, a bias for optimism. Daniel Gilbert does an excellent job of exploring this idea in his book, "Stumbling on Happiness". Our brain's "immune system", as he describes it, depends on our ability to put a positive spin on just about anything.

And, so, our brains simply don't want to believe that dairy operations involve what they do. Behold the power of cheese! We love cheese. More importantly, _I_ love cheese. With the possible exceptions of cottage cheese and cheesecake, both of whom, I feel, besmirch the reputation of cheese as being universally delicious, I have not found a cheese I didn't like. This brain, like most, simply doesn't want to accept information that results in a diminished cheese consumption!

Believing that such practices are anomalous, not the norm, (and when we look at a typical day on one or two or a dozen farms) we can justify not giving up the dairy.

A sweet, sensitive creature, whose only "sin" was to become ill was traumatized by being dragged across the farm. She had no idea what was happening to her, why, or what would happen next. She had no choice. And, she trusted. She could have kicked a few idiots in the head, but submitted to gruesome, awful, senseless, compassion-less treatment. (I hope she did, though, obviously, she'd not be able to do much damage to any heads on THAT farm. . .)

Did I mention how much I "love" the so-called "good Christian folk"? Let me proclaim, now and forever, that you can do such heinous things with impunity while Jesus is watching, since he only requires you to be kind to humans (or other Christian humans, is it? or politically influential Christian humans? I guess that varies) but don't let it happen while I am watching.

Rice and beans, anyone?

Don't Quit Now!

No, this isn't a post about me quitting twitter! But, I did quit, so I'm relying on you, my readers to spread the word about my blog and my unique viewpoint. E-mail a link to this blog to your dog friends!

Quitting is a common problem on both ends of the leash. Faced with the impression of less success than desired, the subject says, "Hey, this isn't working. I should stop now, because this is a waste of time." (Ok, dogs don't waste time thinking words, but you get the idea.)

When the subject is quitting destructive behaviors, like yank-based training or digging holes, quitting is a good, smart thing! We could call that "extinction". It makes good sense to quit doing things that fail to work. We've all heard the quote, attributed to Albert Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

But when the learner quits due to a false sense of failure, quitting is a huge mistake.

In order for a dog to learn, things have to go successfully, or as desired, only slightly more than half the time for the dog to learn. Animals, in general, have a much better understanding of probability than humans. If you are getting what you want 3 out of every 4 times? 75% success? You are well on your way to more success!

Unfortunately, what often happens is that humans don't see 75% success as good enough. They look at that same 75% success as 25% failure, focus on that failure and blow it way out of proportion. The situation feels out of control, the dog is "untrainable", the technique doesn't work, and we throw out baby and bathwater and just give up.

"We'll just have to put her in the back room when company comes over."

Or, instead of just giving one repetition where the dog is asked to sit, the door yanked open, and the dog jumps -- maybe you could just persist in opening the door only when the dog is calm, refusing to allow the entrance of your guests (and the prize: greeting sniff) until all 4 dog feet are firmly on the floor.

Sure, it will take two dozen reps the first time, but that's how the learning works. The next time, it takes 10. Then it takes 4. Successful application of this approach tapers down.

UNLESS you quit before you get what you need. Wherever you quit, whatever you call "good enough", the dog will call this "success". You will not ever get better behavior than that. You will simply get the level of behavior where you quit more rapidly over time.

If you quit when he sat before he jumped, then you aren't ever going to see him not jump at all. His understanding of what you want is sit-then-jump. Because that's where you quit -- even though if you had persisted on every opportunity with the exact same pattern, you would have been able to achieve no jumping!

Quitting when things ARE going well? Yup, it happens. Way more often than you might suspect.

People lack confidence when it comes to the effectiveness of any kind of dog-related interaction. They lack so much confidence in the approaches they select, that they tend to fixate on figuring out IF it "works" than on the more relevant task of HOW it works -- learning every detail of applying it properly. They tend to forget that they, too, have learning to do!

While mastery of the no-jump guest-greet is a fine place to "quit" the dog's learning, learning about dogs is no place for quitters. Dog behavior "experts" who insist that there is only One True Way of dog training? These are people who have quit learning.

Don't quit now. There is so much more!

Get 'Em Under Control with ... Play?

It occurred to me today that I had looked at something repeatedly without ever seeing it.

If you own multiple dogs, you will have looked at this, too. If you've SEEN it, bravo!

Ginger (my rock-solid example of nearly flawless leadership--I miss her intensely) and Lila (possibly the world's most aloof dog) had such a close bond, that when given the opportunity to play with other dogs, would still choose to play 90% of the time with each other.

Lila and I have a relationship, there's no denying it, but nothing like what Lila & Ginger or Ginger & I had.

Ginger & I played. LOTS. Our primary interaction was tug or retrieve play. Hard, rough, intense, occasional bruising of the human from collision with feet, WOO HOO, wild-ass play.

Ginger & Lila played. LOTS. Their primary interaction was wrestling. Ginger never really had the stamina for chase play, so they wrestled. Chest-to-chest, I-throw-you-down, I-throw-myself-down (auugh... I'm dying, kill me!), all-the-books-say-don't-let-em-do-it, ROUGH play.

Lila & I do not play. I can bribe her to retrieve, but it's an exercise.

Until today. I decided that since Ginger taught me everything I know about everything else, I'd finally just go along with her ideas on how to manage Lila.

So, on today's off-leash romp, after one of her famous "see ya later" sprints, we wrestled. Not alpha roll flattening, but the best imitation I could do of the self-alpha-roll?, initiator belly-up, Lila on the top romping I could do.

I have never seen her stick so close to me.

And, that was when I got it. The thing that I have looked at hundreds, probably thousands of times, by dogs everywhere and I never saw.

Dogs use the idea of rewarding undesirable behavior to excellent effect.

Think about it. Watch for it.

Dogs want each other to pay attention to each other, engage with each other, play with each other, communicate with each other. Awareness of "each-other-ness" is the essence of being social, isn't it?

Therefore, separation from, or "distraction" from each other would be an "undesirable behavior" that is "extinguished" by the use of play reward.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is a MODEL of the behavior. This is not how it works, this is just a way to make our human minds evaluate, observe, and assess the interactions that take place without much serious cognition on the part of either canine!

But watch your dogs. Watch your neighbor's dogs. Watch dogs at the dog park. And let me know what you see!